NY Congressional Hopeful Continues High Profile Visit to Israel

GOP candidate meets with yet more top officials, as solidarity trip comes to an end.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

First Publish: 8/28/2014, 8:18 PM

Republican Congressional hopeful Bruce Blakeman continued his high-profile visit to Israel Thursday, meeting with yet more senior Israeli government officials and activists in Jerusalem.

Hosted by prominent Zionist activist Dr. Joseph Frager, the exclusive event kicked off with addresses by senior Likud MKs Yariv Levin and Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotoveli (Likud). Both parliamentarians emphasized the importance of US-Israel relations and the shared values between the two countries.

Levin further emphasized that Israel's cause was not just about security, but about securing the legitimate rights of the Jewish people to live in their historic homeland.

Other dignitaries included former MK Ayoub Kara, Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika, the mayor of the Judean town of Efrat Oded Ravivi, Palestinian Media Watch head Itamar Marcus, and former IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Ronsky.

One of the keynote speakers at the event was Itamar Marcus, whose NGO monitors incitement within the Palestinian media.

Marcus urged Blakeman to fight against the notion that "Hamas is the problem and the Palestinian Authority is the solution."

Noting the long list of incidents of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement within the PA's official media even in the past few weeks, Marcus said that peace would not come until the international community recognized the difference between actual moderates and extremists.

"The biggest mistake, the biggest misunderstanding .. since the signing of the Oslo Accords, is that the Palestinian Authority is a peace party," he insisted.

Ayoub Kara, a member of the Druze community in Israel, said that as an Arabic speaker he was more aware than most of the "Islamization" of the Middle East - via the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and Hezbollah - which threatens all non-Muslim communities.

"They are not going to stop in Syria or Iraq," he warned, pointing to the recent capture of Syrian army positions along Israel's northern border by the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front rebel group.